Egeskov Castle

Next stop was Egeskov Castle about 30 minutes south of Odense. I had read many cool things about this castle so I was really excited to go visit it. We found parking, got our tickets and started in the Castle. The castle is privately owned by the Count Michael Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille. It has been owned by his family since 1919 and his parents and grandparents opened the castle to the public in the 1960s. The castle itself was built in 1554 and is built on oak pillars. The name Egeskov in Danish means Oak wood.

Joe and Amanda at Egeskov Castle

Amanda in the rose garden at Egeskov Castle

We started in the Hunting Room. Pretty sweet. The people who have owned this castle were big time into hunting and especially hunting animals with horns. It was pretty awesome to see all the animal heads and weapons used to hunt. Then we went into the Yellow Room and saw furniture that was given to the occupants of the castle from King Louis XVI in 1875 for their wedding.

The Hunting Room

We went upstairs and got to see the Banqueting Hall which was amazing and has chamber concerts in the summer on Sunday evenings. They had all kinds of interesting armor and other weapons in this hall.

The Banqueting Hall

Next up was the hunting passage, again with the hunting. In this room we got to see the oldest long bow in Denmark and found out that the little “closet” next to the display case was in fact hiding a toilet! (One of 17 that had been built into the thick walls of the castle)

Then we saw the Rigborg room, which had the coolest exhibit of the castle, Titania’s Palace. This doll house was built in 1907 by a father for his daughter who insisted that she saw small elves and fairies working in the garden and wanted them to have a nice place to live too. It took 15 years to complete the doll house and the detail was amazing. One of the rooms had a mosaic ceiling and several of the rooms had semi-precious or precious stones as a part of the decorations. It was so fun to look at everything and see all the details of the rooms.

Titania’s Palace

We saw the North Tower, the Victorian Parlor then the Music Room. They have an antique square piano in the Music room which was really neat to see. Then we saw the Steward’s room which can be used as a guest room and the Governess’ room. The last room was the South Tower which had a beautiful view of the garden and a cupboard containing linens that have been used at the castle for generations.

We headed upstairs to the loft and saw the wooden man which isn’t supposed to be moved or the castle will sink into the moat on Christmas Eve, so the legend says. They had all kinds of pottery, toys and kitchen equipment. It was really cool to see everything!

After the castle we headed over to the tree top walk and got to climb up to the top area of the trees and walk across several bridges. It was fun to be so high up and see the grounds.

Joe on the tree top walk

Amanda on the tree top walk

We headed over to the museums next and started with the motorcycles. I was really impressed by the collection they had. After the motorcycles we saw the grocer’s museum which was like a general store and Dracula’s crypt. We then got to the coolest museum, the old cars. We saw all kinds of early cars including a BWM, Audi, VW, Rolls Royce, Jaguar, Buick and a Ford Taurus! I got excited by the Taurus because I kind of miss my boat back home (My friends parents who have been taking care of my car while I’ve been gone nicknamed it “the boat” so I think that’s going to stick). It was really cool to see all the cars though! It was kind of fun how in the very beginning American cars were respected in Europe, not really sure what happened over the years but I think some American cars have gotten a bad name. Anyway, the cars were really cool to see and I think the most enjoyable museum!

Amanda with an old Ford Taurus

Joe with an old BMW

Before heading over to one of the mazes we decided to try our skills at the stilts they had available. Joe’s coworker and I were not nearly as talented as Joe was on them, but it was still fun to try!

Trying our skills on the stilts

Joe was much better than us!

After that we walked over to one of the maze gardens only to be disappointed that it was closed to the public (had we read our map a little better we would have known this but somehow we missed that bit of information). Since it was almost 6pm and the castle grounds would be closing we headed to the gardens.

We walked through the Kitchen garden which was really cool and saw all kinds of vegetables growing including cabbage and corn then we headed into the fuchsia garden. Apparently this garden has 75 different species and 1538 plants in the garden. They were really beautiful!

Fuchsia

We walked over to the sundial and then called it a day. The castle was really amazing and so much fun to see. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day to travel around either so we really lucked out!

Joe and Amanda at the water garden

Tomorrow we may or may not have a final adventure in the car before we give it back, we’re still deciding so more adventures to possibly come though certainly more next weekend when we make one last trip to Copenhagen! I so don’t want to leave now! It’s funny how that happens, a few days ago I was feeling ready to go and now, I just want to stay! However, I still must say I couldn’t have asked for a more amazing summer! :)

Love from Amanda